MOSCOW, Idaho — It’s the first week of classes at the University of Idaho, and while most students are settling into their new dorms, 88 students are being forced to make do with a hotel room.
U of I residence halls are exceeding capacity, leaving the unlucky few to live off-campus for the time being.
“I was going to go to Boise State for college, but I couldn’t get into any dorms there,” said Shafer Dicus, who’s currently staying at the Fairbridge Inn. “I thought I’d be able to here, so I signed up a little bit late.”
The university is showing residence halls at max capacity, at least on paper.
Dicus gave a 4 News Now tour of his new living conditions.
“We’re supposed to have laundry here but the dryer doesn’t work so we have to go to the laundromat down there,” he said.
The room isn’t too different from a dorm, in fact, the beds are even bigger. And although the A/C leaks, he’s grateful to have it during the August heat.
“The living isn’t bad, it’s just far away from campus,” he said.
It’s about a 10 minute walk from campus, where all 2,013 housing options are taken, though the school doesn’t expect that to last long.
U of I has what’s called a “melt,” which is a projection of the number of students who have been accepted and have a dorm room waiting for them. But for one reason or another, they never show up. Then, those beds become available to one of the students living at the motel.
“It’s really hard to tell who’s going to be there on the first day of classes so what we have is a 10 day count,” said Josh Kosh, director of Marketing and Communications of the Auxiliary Department at U of I. “So on the tenth day of classes, though not exact, we’re going to have a pretty good idea of who’s coming and who’s not going to be coming.”
The University of Idaho’s goal is to have everybody at the Fairbridge Inn back on campus by the end of September. Dicus says in the meantime, he’s found a great group of people to get through this experience with.
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